SPECIAL NOTICE TO POSTMASTERS
AND WINDOW
CLERKS
visiting here:

THANK YOUso
much for helping me with my postmark project. I appreciate your interest
in helping stamp collectors and postmark collectors! I hope
you will take just a minute or two for me to provide some information exchange
as it relates to collectors. I have a lot of collector's information on
the page you just came from, and I hope it is all useful to you. Please
feel free to share this information with your colleagues as well as any stamp
collectors you might know of in your community.

As you likely know by visiting this page, I have been
personally visiting post offices in the
immediate four-state area of Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas, collecting
examples of postmarks for my collection and in many cases, taking a photograph
of the post office to add to the collection of U.S. post offices already existing at
http://www.postmarks.org

I often post interesting postmarks on my blog at
StampWants(now called BidStart.com) and encourage other collectors to get into the hobby of collecting postmarks.
Postmark collectors are a bit different than regular stamp collectors; in that
while stamp collectors are mainly concerned with the condition of the stamp, we are interested in
the entire item including the cancellation and markings, whether it be a postcard
or an entire cover; and in the postal history reflected in the condition of the
whole mailing piece. We cringe
when we see old historical covers being destroyed by someone who doesn't know
better than to soak an old stamp off an envelope in order to obtain the stamp, thereby destroying the potential collector's value of
the "entire." In many instances, the complete envelope with all
the postmarks
and postal markings left intact will always enhance the value, especially if we are talking about
older items, mail from the wars and so on. A good rule of thumb is to allow
someone who knows about "covers" take a look at what the item is, before
allowing an old envelope to be destroyed, just to obtain the stamps off of it.
Stamps are available from dealers practically everywhere in the country
at a very nominal price, and potentially valuable covers should not be
destroyed to obtain a .05 to .10 cent retail used stamp.

I appreciate the fact that the
Postal Service
management recognizes and supports philatelists and postmark collectors, as well.

I have found from my travels that many of you apparently receive very little,
if any,
contact from stamp collectors. Small towns, by their very nature, don't have
many stamp, First Day cover, or postmark collectors. The idea of someone wanting to collect a postmark may
strike you as strange, and in many cases, as even being illegal. I myself, have
been told that several times just within the last year! I assure you that
such is not the case and that in March of 2003, USPS Manager of Stamp Services
Dave Failor issued a two page memorandum that covers postmark collecting;
and in particular "handback service," to postmark collectors.
In case you missed it, go here.

In that same memorandum, as an attachment, Failor also
provides information about USPS pictorial
cancellations, which many community organizations in your area might be
interested in sponsoring to serve as a way to honor local celebrations, including anniversaries of
cities, groups and government and service organizations. We collectors appreciate you
postmasters who cooperate with community organizations who seek to sponsor such
cancellations. It benefits both collectors and the community.

Some collectors have asked for a quick-reference guide
to the regulations that relate to obtaining postmarks, and I realize you have
those regulations available to you in Section 231.3 of the POM. Those
references are not available to the average collector, so one of the stamp
publications placed them in a form for easy reference. The regulations
found in the old DMM are apparently still applicable, and many collectors still
refer to this file, which you may also find helpful. You can
view it here.

Another area of collecting that many collectors both
collect and use for mailing their outgoing mail, is Mailer's Postmark Permits.
A few years back, one postmaster vehemently told me there was no such thing as a
"mailer's postmark permit." Well, believe it or not, there is!
Many of you may not have encountered this postmark, so I'll illustrate one here. I personally have three current
Mailer's Postmark permits,
including the one illustrated here, MPP # 1 from Lamar, Missouri. They
fall under the same section as precanceled stamps, but these are precanceled
postmarks. Go here
to read all about them in Section P023
of the POM.

These permits as used by stamp collectors for first class mail, do not have anything to do with Bulk Mail, and there is no annual
fee for the permit. Mailer Postmark Permits can be used by bulk mailers
for Presort Standard mail, so that is often confusing. When a collector
uses a Mailer's Postmark, there is not a fee, and the mail is presented to the
counter clerk, for entry into the mailstream. Many collectors like to decorate their outgoing
philatelic mail with older collectable stamps, and using a MPP cancelling device is one way to insure
that they receive a desirable light postmark, and also to help prevent damage
from abusive cancellation machines. MPP mail is pre-canceled and ready to
go directly to the OCR, without additional handling, so it is also
cost-effective for the USPS, in that sense. It does not need to be
over-sprayed at the sectional center.

The Post Mark Collector's Club (PMCC) is just one of many
collector groups recognized by the USPS philatelic division, with members who collect
a wide variety of postmarks, including those from military units, ships, shore
stations, historical locations; cities with interesting names with holiday
connections, such as Noel, Missouri, and Valentine, Texas and Loveland,
Colorado. Some collectors collect the special pictorial postmarks that the USPS
announces in the Postal Bulletin, also called pictorial cancellations; here is
an example from Columbia, MO from July 2009. Thanks to all those
postmasters who have assisted local philatelic groups and others in obtaining a
special souvenir postmark for their event!

As a point of
information, about postmark collecting, postmark collectors are wanting to be able to read the
name of the city and the zip code in the postmark. It is helpful if the
device is properly inked and legibly applied. The following example is
overinked, or evidences use of too much pressure during the application process:

Heavy cancellation on a
collector's item, in the same manner as might be expected or seen employed on a parcel
bearing stamps, is not only unnecessary on an envelope, but will likely be found
to be
very unsatisfactory to
a postmark collector, and don't be surprised if they complain. I
thought it might be helpful if you could actually see what I am talking about;
below is a live example from earlier in 2009. Some of the stamps were from around
World War II. Others used in the franking are from the 1980's.

These stamps immediately above missed being canceled at the point of mailing in
New York, and in administering postal regulations which are designed to protect
revenue, someone, somewhere, along the line, performed the Sharpie operation shown
above. Use of an Item 570, all-purpose dater/obliterator, would have been much
preferred by a collector and would have allowed the stamps to later be added to
a collection.

Use of a heavy permanent marker as shown in the image
immediately above, is not much better! None of these stamps could ever be
salvaged for use by a stamp collector, and this kind of treatment does nothing but breed ill-will
and hard feelings among
stamp collectors, toward your organization. Collectors will often ask for a
light cancellation, which is
also covered in the Postal Operations Manual. (It's OK)

Many times, a cancellation applied
directly to the top of the stamp (a killer, as collectors often call it) will
indeed assure that the stamp will not be reused--but for a person who collects
postmarks, you can safely assume that they are not involved in the hobby of
postmark collecting with an intention of reusing the stamp. Postmark collectors would prefer to have the
cancellation device bars or dial catch the left side or lower edge of the stamp, where most of the
remainder of the dial of the postmark then appears on the envelope portion, therefore making the
postmark itself clearly readable, and also leaving the stamps themselves
collectable.

As more helpful information arises, I will post it
here. I welcome all of you to join a philatelic group or two online,
a couple of examples include BidStart.com
which has collector discussion groups, and the Virtual Stamp Club forum,
one of many found at
http://forums.delphiforums.com
There are already a lot of USPS employees who go there to both of these online
sites, and I think you would find the information you obtain from the discussion
groups and forums there quite helpful.